Martin Bobgan
Psychological counseling theories and therapies have given Americans a new way of thinking and have turned our country into a therapeutic culture of the self—where the self and how it feels about itself are at the center of meaning. People from coast to coast have embraced a psychological mindset that puts emotional deprivation and woundedness as the root cause of nearly every personal and social problem. This mindset has the potential to make everyone into a victim needing the services of the ever-expanding mental-health system. Fifteen years ago Charles Sykes wrote a book titled A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character, in which he says:
The ethos of victimization has an endless capacity not only for exculpating one’s self from blame, washing away responsibility in a torrent of explanation—racism, sexism, rotten parents, addiction, and illness—but also for projecting guilt onto others.1
Sykes also says, “The impulse to flee from personal responsibility and blame others seems far more deeply embedded within the American culture.”2 In fact, he declares, “The National Anthem has become The Whine,” and explains, “Increasingly, Americans act as if they had received a lifelong indemnification from misfortune and a contractual release from personal responsibility.”3
Psychological Mindset
The psychological mindset evolved out of the fairly recent development of clinical psychology (including psychotherapy, counseling psychology, and marriage and family counseling), which was birthed in colleges and universities around 1950 and expanded through politics and money.4 Since that time, it has exploded to the extent that Dr. Ellen Herman describes psychology’s popularity and impact on the Western world this way in her book titled The Romance of American Psychology:
Psychological insight is the creed of our time. In the name of enlightenment, experts promise help and faith, knowledge and comfort. They devise confident formulas for happy living and ambitious plans for dissolving the knots of conflict. Psychology, according to its boosters, possesses worthwhile answers to our most difficult personal questions and practical solutions for our most intractable social problems
Herman also says:
In the late twentieth-century United States, we are likely to believe what psychological experts tell us. They speak with authority to a vast audience and have become familiar figures in most communities, in the media, and in virtually every corner of popular culture. Their advice is a big business.6
The kind of psychology that carries this power to turn people into victims is psychotherapy with its underlying psychologies, such as Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, along with an estimated 500 different counseling systems and their theories. After all, who has a perfect life, certainly none of the theorists, all of whom developed their systems out of their own personal lives and creative imagination?7
In her book Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People, Dr. Tana Dineen reveals what the so-called caring profession has become. She begins her book with the following words and the rest of her book proves her point:
Psychology presents itself as a concerned and caring profession working for the good of its clients. But behind the benevolent facade is a voracious, self-serving industry that proffers “facts” which are often unfounded, provides “therapy” which can be damaging, and exerts influence, which is having devastating effects on the social fabric.8
Dineen also says:
It is not news to say that psychology has become an influential cultural force or that society is becoming more and more filled with people who consider themselves victims who are psychologically needy in one way or another.
What is news is that psychology is manufacturing most of these victims; that it is doing this with motives based on power and profit (emphasis hers).9
While, indeed, there are real victims, the psychotherapeutic mindset has trivialized the horrors that some people have experienced by so expanding the meaning that now everyone qualifies if they want to. The role of victim can actually be quite enticing. Besides qualifying for sympathy from friends, engaging in endless psychological therapy centered on self, and gaining exoneration from responsibility and guilt, being a victim provides a new identity of being the hero or heroine in one’s own drama of overcoming horrendous obstacles in the grand quest for psychological healing. Rather than having to face the ugly fact of their own sin without excuse or reason or blame-shifting, they choose to be victims. Dr. Carol Tavris and Dr. Elliot Aronson describe the usefulness of victimhood that comes from recovered memory therapy in their book titled Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. They say:
Why would people claim to remember that they had suffered harrowing experiences if they hadn’t, especially when that belief causes rifts with families or friends? By distorting their memories, these people can “get what they want by revising what they had,” and what they want is to turn their present lives, no matter how bleak or mundane, into a dazzling victory over adversity. Memories of abuse also help them resolve the dissonance between “I am a smart, capable person” and “My life sure is a mess right now” with an explanation that makes them feel good and removes responsibility: “It’s not my fault my life is a mess. Look at the horrible things they did to me.”10
Psychological Mindset Christianized?
Yes, we are surrounded by a nation of victims with a therapeutic mindset, but wait—we are Christians! How does this affect those of us who have been given new life through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross? What does this have to do with the Gospel and with living the Christian life? Plenty!
Almost as soon as the romance of psychology took hold of Americans, it was embraced by Christians who believed psychological counseling theories and therapies would be useful for helping Christians. These psychological counseling ideas were brought into pastoral counseling classes in numerous seminaries. Next came the “Christian psychologists” who devised a plan to integrate counseling psychologies theories and therapies with Christianity, both for counseling believers and for instructing the saints about how to live the Christian life. And now, what is the advice people hear when they are struggling with emotional distress and problems of living? “You need counseling.” And, what they mean is professional counseling, psychotherapy and its underlying theories of the self. Why? Because they believe a lie that, in essence, says that the cross of Christ, the Word of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of believers are not enough for people with emotional or relational problems of living and that Christians need what only psychological theories and therapies can do. This is because of what Sykes calls:
The triumph of the therapeutic mentality … which insisted upon seeing the immemorial questions of human life as problems that required solutions. The therapeutic culture provided both in abundance: The therapists transformed age-old human dilemmas into psychological problems and claimed that they (and they alone) had the treatment.11
This lie about the Word of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the saints not being sufficient for dealing with so-called psychological problems of living is promoted by numerous leaders and believed throughout the church. One of them is Dr. Bruce Narramore, Distinguished Professor at Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University, who says: “I think the critics [of psychology] need to ask, ‘Why are people so interested in psychology?’ The thought is that we ought to go back to the old way. But the old way wasn’t working.”12 Narramore says this without proof or evidence and thereby implies that for nearly 2000 years God failed to supply His children with the means of dealing with problems of living.
The integration of the theories and therapies of counseling psychology has succeeded in turning the body of Christ into a bunch of victims. If this were a book title, the subtitle could be “The Demise of Biblical Ministry.” In its eager embrace of this kind of psychology, the church has left its first love and fallen for the wisdom of man and “philosophy and vain deceit” (1 Cor. 2; Col. 2:8). That this kind of psychology is now regular fare in churches across America can be seen in the observation of Dr. Frank Furedi in his book Therapy Culture, in which he says: “A study of ‘seeker churches’ in the US argues that their ability to attract new recruits is based on their ability to tap into the therapeutic understanding of Americans.”13 He sees this as a preoccupation with the self, and, indeed, that is what it is all about—self!
All About Self
The focus of psychological therapy is on self and its problems from the perspective that the self is essentially good, but wounded emotionally by circumstances and other people. Therefore more and more Christians are seeing themselves as innocent victims with their “mistakes” and problems of living being due to other people and circumstances beyond their control. Worse yet, some, who have been convinced that the source of their problems is what happened to them as young children, spend months and years in therapy and/or in so-called inner healing. Some are trying to gain insight by remembering real events and some are searching for supposedly forgotten memories of abuse and neglect. Others are encouraged to see a figure of Jesus add something to the memory to heal or change it, but, since this is all in their imagination, they end up with a false Jesus. The idea in all of this kind of counseling and inner healing is that self has been harmed in some way and must be helped and healed.
Psychotherapy thus attempts to fix the self so that its so-called essential goodness can be experienced and expressed. The psychological mindset sees the problem as on the outside. The solution is found within the self, albeit with the help of those who have special psychological knowledge. Self is central and must be nurtured with self-love, self-esteem, and self-worth, all of which are supposed to lead to self-fulfillment, but which generally increase self-absorption, self-centeredness, and self-indulgence.
In contrast, the Word of God presents the truth about mankind, that we are sinners by nature and therefore not essentially good in ourselves. Romans 3:10 says: “There is none righteous, no not one” and verse 23 says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The problem of sin comes from within and the solution comes from outside ourselves, from God Himself through the cross of Christ, who bore our sin, and purchased our new life, which is received by grace through faith and lived by grace through faith.
Victim or Sinner?
One of the main goals of much counseling psychology is to relieve guilt so that individuals can feel better about themselves and thereby supposedly handle their lives more effectively. Helping an individual see himself as needy, emotionally wounded, and having been harmed or disappointed by others is one convenient way to sidestep personal responsibility, sin, and guilt. This is the opposite of the Bible, which provides the true remedy for sin and the only remedy for the human condition through Jesus Christ and all He accomplished to rid one of sin and guilt.
The whole of Scripture points to the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. Its focal point is Jesus Christ satisfying God’s wrath against sin and procuring forgiveness and new life for believers. Christianity is all about living the new life and reckoning oneself dead to the old life. Christianity is not about focusing on problems and on other people’s sins and shortcomings, and it is not about dredging up the past to fix the present. The Christian life is about confessing one’s own sin, walking according to the new life in Christ, and “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” towards the goal of the “high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13,14).
The early church had the one remedy for everyone’s present problems and past circumstances: the cross of Christ! The magnitude of each person’s sin against God from the cradle to the grave is more than anyone could bear to imagine, but Jesus took it all upon Himself so that he could give every believer new life. He, who knew no sin, died in the place of those who were by nature sin. He did not just come to fix the flesh (the old nature). He came to put it on the cross so that believers, by identifying with Him, could reckon themselves dead to the old and alive to the new.
Everyone has been adversely affected by the sins of others to some degree, but the adverse effects or the sinful tendencies from parents or sinful ways learned from them reside in the flesh (old nature). Our flesh is therefore the problem, not something outside ourselves, either past or present. Therefore, the Bible does not teach people to nurture their so-called “inner child” or to develop self-esteem or to probe their early childhood years to look for ways that adults failed them in any way. The Bible does not advise anyone to remember and re-experience past pain, disappointments, or even abuse for the sake of personal or spiritual growth. The Bible does not suggest that people must be healed emotionally before they can believe God or before they can grow spiritually.
Considering the grievous circumstances and the childhoods of many of the Gentile Christians, the early church had plenty of potential “victims” (many born and raised in slavery with the accompanying sexual and physical abuse and being treated as less than human). But, did the church treat them as victims needing to heal their emotional wounds or to remember the pain of the past in order to know God and to grow spiritually? No! The Bible does not portray mankind as victims, but as sinners. Jesus died for sinners, not victims!
The Way of the Cross
The way of the cross is a totally different way of dealing with serious life issues and problems of living. Rather than trying to remember the past and somehow rework painful memories through therapy or so-called inner healing, Christians need to reckon themselves dead to the past by identifying with Christ’s death and to live according to their new life in Christ. Everything needs to be taken to the cross instead of relived and talked about. Nevertheless, many of the people who promote this senseless return to the past agree that Christ died for our sins, but insist that many Christians still need healing from the past. However, digging up old memories for the purpose of changing one’s present life is counterproductive to the cross and in effect denies the finished work of Christ.
Jesus said, “It is finished.” So we say to fellow Christians: Identify with those words when you bring sin to the cross, your own sin and the sins committed against you. Recognize that Jesus suffered the pain and eternal consequence of those sins. He felt the pain and agony of every sin you have committed and the pain of every sin committed against you. He took it all and said, “It is finished.” If a memory with its pain comes back, treat it as a temptation from the enemy, who wants to rob you of the truth of what Christ did and to undermine your identification with Him, both in His death and resurrection. Satan always works to keep Christians struggling in the flesh, because that is where they are the most vulnerable and because he hates the life of Christ in every believer. He is most pleased when Christians walk according to the flesh or their old nature. Therefore, the devil is pleased with all forms of psychological therapy and related forms of inner healing, including Theophostic Prayer Ministry.14
Think Biblically, Not Psychologically
Christians need to think biblically when they read books about how to live and deal with problems of living. They need to guard their thinking when watching or listening to believers or unbelievers talking about how to deal with the issues of life and about what it is to be a Christian. They need to be alert to such expressions as: felt needs, rejection, broken lives, repression, denial, defense mechanisms, inferiority complex, sublimation, projection, transference, maladjustment, low self-esteem, the unconscious, hidden reservoirs, hidden memories, emotional wounds, emotional healing, codependence, addiction, compulsion, trauma, stress, identity crisis. Every behavior imaginable has the possibility of a psychological maldescription.
Utilizing psychological therapies or inner healing blinds Christians to the glory of the cross and the great love that was poured out for them. Those who are willing to face their own depravity and the sins they continue to commit after they have received new life and who honestly look at what Jesus bore in their place have a greater realization of God’s love. Jesus said, “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little” (Luke 7:47). Thus, by seeing the magnitude of what Christ forgave them, believers know His love, and by knowing and receiving His love, are enabled to love Him back and His love in them flows out to others. The cross is the answer to all the pain of the past, and Jesus is the answer for every present problem of living. Here is the victory won by Christ and worked into the fabric of believers’ lives as they reckon themselves dead to their old life and alive unto Him. No wonder the enemy of our souls has invented such an enticing trap into victimhood!
Believers do not transform their lives through looking at the sins of others or by revisiting the past, but by confessing their own sin and believing that Jesus took it all. Believers need to leave their own sin and the sins committed against them on the cross and not try to remember, reconstruct, fix or transform the so-called inner child, which is actually the old nature or flesh. They are to live by the new life Jesus has procured for them, the new life that stretches forward into eternity. Colossians 2:6-10 says:
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.
The Word of God continually calls believers back to their source of new life, back to faith in Christ and all he accomplished for living the new life. Believers are not called to be victims of their present circumstances or their past or of a powerful motivating unconscious supposedly formed during early life. They are to be walking by faith, growing in faith, and “abounding therein with thanksgiving.” That does not sound like the whine of the victims.
Furthermore, Paul warns believers not to be robbed of what they have in Christ through “philosophy and vain deceit” that turns them into victims. Psychological counseling theories are not science. They more aptly fall into Paul’s category of “philosophy and vain deceit.” Indeed, they resemble religion more than science. Dr. Thomas Szasz states the case very clearly in his book The Myth of Psychotherapy: “Herein lies one of the supreme ironies of modem psychotherapy: it is not merely a religion that pretends to be a science, it is actually a fake religion that seeks to destroy true religion.Ó15 Psychological counseling theories are collections of human opinions arranged in theoretical frameworks. They are human inventions based on the perception and personal experiences of the theorists themselves. They are “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith”(1 Tim. 6:20-21).
Even when Paul was beaten and left for dead, he did not see himself as a victim, but as a recipient of the very life of Christ by grace through faith. Therefore he declared: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Rather than victims forever seeking to be healed of emotional wounds, Christians are new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), fully equipped for challenges, trials, disappointments, dangers, and all sorts of calamities. Christ has won the victory and “ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”
Victimization shifts the attention away from one’s own responsibility for what is thought, said, and done. Victimization shifts attention away from one’s own sin and onto the sins of others committed against them. Victimization diverts believers away from the cross of Christ. Victimization robs them of gratitude for God’s unspeakable gift and thereby robs them of a close walk with Him. Turning Christians into victims weakens their faith and stunts spiritual growth. Every choice to walk according to the Spirit by grace through faith brings spiritual maturity. The choice is up to every believer, whether to be a psychologically defined and created victim or to be a biblically defined sinner saved by grace and growing into the likeness of Christ.
(PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter, May-June 2008, Vol. 16, No. 3)
“Just read your article on victims (PsychoHeresy )…
I used to feel like everything that I went through was not my fault. I was angry at God. My mom had mental illness, I was raped by 3 men, abused in my first marriage, boyfriend killed in accident, and blah blah blah. But one day that outlook changed. What was it? I took responsibility. I put myself in bad situations. I made poor choices that led me to those circumstances. I ignored God’s voice. I…I..I….I was the reason. Not God. Once I realized that, God was able to come in and take care of business. My relationship with God was mended. God was merciful and he blessed me beyond what I deserve. He is in control. Not me. Being the victim puts you in the driving seat—I was driving around in circles. That’s all being a victim does. Gets u nowhere in a hurry. I want God to be my driver. I don’t want the control. Let Him take me where He will.
But there are sooo many people who can make anything an act of victimization! They twist innocent words or events to make themselves the victim. It’s toxic for the soul. It eats away at the victim and seeps into those around them. It’s all about the rush. The attention. People can be quick to feed these lions with the food they seek. Dangerous.” anonymous
Endnotes
1 Charles J. Sykes. A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character. New York: St. MartinÕs Press, 1992, p. 11.
2 Ibid., pp. 14,15.
3 Ibid., p. 15.
4 Rogers H. Wright and Nicholas A. Cummings, eds. The Practice of Psychology: The Battle for Professionalism. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker & Theisen, Inc., 2001.
5 Ellen Herman. The Romance of American Psychology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1195, 1996, p. 1.
6 Ibid.
7 Harvey Mindess. Makers of Psychology: The Personal Factor. New York: Insight Books, 1988; Linda Riebel, ÒTheory as Self-Portrait and the Ideal of Objectivity,Ó Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Spring 1982.
8 Tana Dineen. Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry is Doing to People. Montreal, QB: Robert Davies Multimedia Publishing, 1996, 1998, 2000, p. 15.
9 Ibid., pp. 17,18.
10 Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2007, p. 94.
11 Sykes, op. cit., p. 34.
12 Bruce Narramore, Christianity Today, May 17, 1993, p. 26.
13 Frank Furedi. Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age. New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 18.
14 See Martin and Deidre Bobgan. Theophostic Counseling: Divine Revelation? Or PsychoHeresy? Santa Barbara, CA: EastGate Publishers, 1999.
15 Thomas Szasz. The Myth of Psychotherapy. Garden City: Anchor/Doubleday Press, 1978, p. 28.
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Articles
Mission Mexico Update Part 34 [video]
Mexico Army Personnel Ministered to [podcast]
“Love this walk around ministry here in Mexico. Handed a fella a tract and about 3 minutes later I passed by him and he was still reading it.” Mark
Brother Mark is a studious, diligent disciple of Jesus. Diligently doing the ultimate mission for our Messiah which is eternal. Thank you for lifting our brother in prayer (Colossians 4:12).
Mission Mexico – This is brother in Christ Juan. After ministering to him he lit up and informed me that he is a born again Christian. He is now distributing the JESUS tract on a very busy street where his shop it (the one he owns). God is good. Satan is a liar. Jesus is coming. Let’s roll saints. More Mission Mexico updates here.
“You mentioned our prayers are golden with God. How true this is according to Revelation 5:8. They are ‘golden vials’ (prayers and praises). That go upward to heaven right to the Lord! Carried up to the throne of heaven. And are received as a sweet odour to God! If done out of a pure heart. Because we know He hears the prayers of the righteous (Proverbs 15:29). If we are clothed in humility, our prayers and praises will be a sweet-smelling aroma to our Lord Jesus!” Karen Cochran
Regrettably, most professing Christians will never love Jesus enough to give up this fleeting world for Heaven’s coming King (Luke 14:33; 17:33).
When asked if she desired Christians in the USA to lift her in prayer, Maria immediately responded in the affirmative. Thank you for lifting the people in Mexico in your prayer, right now if you wish to pause.
Last evening brother Mark and I met up again with the dear pharmacist man. Gave him a big hug, warmly interacted with him, and gave him a fresh supply of the JESUS tract to continue to distribute from his pharmacy which is on a very busy corner here in Mexico and has daily walk in and walk by traffic.
A few days ago…. TONIGHT …. Another 50-60 JESUS tracts distributed and God’s Word spoken to many. 99% reception rate. God is good. Jesus is coming. Let’s roll saints. Mission Mexico underway. Your prayers and support are vital.
The receptivity of the Mexican people to our LORD’s Gospel is staggering, utterly dumbfounding.
“Truthfully amazing. I don’t think we here in in America can even begin to comprehend what God is doing in the hearts of the Mexican people. The book of Acts is the closest thing we have to understanding. I just read Daniel 12:3 “and they that the turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” You and Mark’s lives in Christ are a shining testament to so many as you lead them to salvation and the righteousness only found in Christ.” Karen Cochran
Recently it was made known that a new batch of the JESUS tracts in Spanish was a need. A dear disciple of Christ funded that. God is good. 1,500 JESUS tracts! Done! appr 7,000 distributed thus far!
After the last newsletter, a dear sister in Christ jumped in and sent the money for us to print 1,500 more of the JESUS tract in Spanish. So now to date 9,000 have been printed during Mission Mexico. Appr 7,000 already distributed! 7,000 souls heard and read the Gospel of our LORD thus far and your prayers and support make this possible!
Jesus the Great High Priest
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrew 4:14-16
Check this out…..Trending now on SafeGuardYourSoul.com
“NEVER take a Vacation from God” [podcast]
Jesus is coming saints – we going home soon to His forever home (John 14:1-6).
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”
Heaven in the greatest investment – it’s forever. In Jesus our LORD
todd
God be praised for those who are financially supporting this outreach. We will continue to do with that which comes in. Here are some things that can be done….
More support to others doing ministry in the USA.
We support Allan Abayon, who is a sound disciple and now ministering in the Philippines.
More support for requested books by Jay, a chaplain who ministers to 800 inmates in Texas, on the border. He’s the brother who contacted me after he got a hold of one of the Authentic Disciple of Jesus books (Spanish) in the jail he ministers in. He loved it and asked for more. We’ve only sent him a few dozen as that’s all the money that was given for such…..
Roger (pictured below) is a brother in Christ and after we talked he took some JESUS tracts to distribute. Amen LORD. Roger was asked if he’d like Christians in the USA to lift him in prayer and he eagerly said “yes.” Would you like to pause now and lift up our brother in Christ to the Father in Jesus’ name?
Dear saints in Christ, thank you for agreeing that it is our privilege to help these beloved people, to take out of what GOD has put in our hand to help HIS work.
Abiding
The Killing Power of the Holy Ghost with Judge Travis Bryan III [podcast]
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Romans 8:13
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10-12
“The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that I ever bore; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my harbor.” Samuel Rutherford
Momentum in the power of the Holy Spirit comes from a continual perpetual downward dying motion, being then raised up reciprocally in the resurrection grace of Jesus Christ.
“The flesh loses its power over you when it is crucified. Christ’s power begins to reign. The worries and stress of this life leave. And you begin to have the peace that passes all understanding. Philippines 4:7 Amen! A crucified life! Hallelujah all praise to Jesus.” Karen Cochran
God’s plan for your life….here it is:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
The ministry has put together 3 volumes sure to deepen your life in Christ, in the crucified life. 3 volumes to boost your life in Christ, in the cross He commanded us to take up – and by which He raises us upward in His glorious power and grace (Luke 9:23-24).
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Antichrist
“Thine Enemies Roar in the Midst of Thy Congregations” [podcast]
Lucifer was cast down from Heaven and is now called Satan. He invaded the sinless pristine environment of the Garden of Eden. Check out Ezekiel 28:12-19. Read Psalm 74:4, 7. Satan infiltrates that which is ordained to be the place of the worship of God. He breathes his “strange fire” into those sanctuaries to destroy them.
Is the name of Jesus emphasized in your fellowship? Or has it been replaced with the worship of mere men?
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is NONE OTHER NAME under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
“Which think to cause my people to forget my name BY THEIR DREAMS which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.” Jeremiah 23:27
Fascinating Details Revealed about Lucifer in Eternity Past
Is it any wonder that Satan seeks to infiltrate and subvert the worship of the Most High? As we know he was “in Eden the garden of God.” Here in Ezekiel 28, we see the law of double reference where this applies to and speaks of the king of Tyrus and also Lucifer:
“Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” Ezekiel 28:12-19
Adam Clarke writes:
“Jeremiah 23:27
By their dreams – Dreams were anciently reputed as a species of inspiration; see Num_12:6; 1Sa_28:6; Joe_3:1; Dan_7:1. In the Book of Genesis we find many examples; and although many mistook the workings of their own vain imaginations in sleep for revelations from God, yet he has often revealed himself in this way: but such dreams were easily distinguished from the others. They were always such as had no connection with the gratification of the flesh; they were such as contained warnings against sin, and excitements to holiness; they were always consecutive – well connected, with a proper beginning and ending; such as possessed the intellect more than the imagination. Of such dreams the Lord says, (Jer_23:28): The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream – permit him to show what he has thus received from the Lord: but let him tell it as a dream, and speak my word faithfully, lest he may have been deceived.”
Of Jeremiah 23:27-29 Believer’s Bible Commentary notes:
“23:23-29 The omnipresent and omniscient God exposes the prophets for their dreams, which led people into idolatry. Their dreams were chaff compared to God’s word, which is like nutritious wheat, and also like fire and . . . a hammer.”
As seen here in Jeremiah 23, dreams are one way false prophets get His people to forget Him, His holy name.
As an earthly father or mother, picture some other man or woman seeking to draw your child away from you, to intercept and usurp the affections of your child’s heart which belong to you, the parent and no one else.
Do we begin to see why God’s very name is Jealous?
“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:” Exodus 34:14
In Psalm 74, Satan and his human emmissaries are depicted in their evil endeavor to unseat God’s people from their pure worship of Him and therefore leading them to enter into sinful, damning idolatry – the worship of another god. See the first and second commandments in Exodus 20.
“Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.” Psalms 74:4
“Ensigns” here means flags, monuments. We’ve all seen the monument of the Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima Japan after having through much bloodshed, conquered that plot of land. It marked a great victory and turn in that war.
Are you beginning to see a picture form?
Whenever an opposing army conquers that which belongs to their enemy, they plant their flag as a monument, a marker to their now conquering, possessing, and having reign over what was their enemy’s territory, domain.
While the enemy of our souls seeks to displace our flag, our banner, our pure allegiance to Christ, we must plant the banner, flagpole of our unadulterated allegiance, fidelity, and loyalty to Him.
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14
“Jesus must be our all in all! Your first love! ‘Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind’.” Matt 22: 37-40.” Karen Cochran
Daily, I must ask and ascertain what my true identity is!
“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
The enemy of God who is Satan and his human agents, seek to infiltrate and bring the “strange fire” of their false teachings and un-biblical practices in the midst of what is supposed to be the pure worship of the LORD (Leviticus 10:1-3). Isn’t this exactly what Jesus violently rebuked and destroyed when He cleansed the temple of the greed-driven, covetous money changers who had made the place of worship into a den of thieves to rob the LORD of His glory and the people of their blessing to worship Him? Read Matthew 21 and John 2.
When the Communists (Satanic form of government) come in and begin taking over another country, they remove and replace the leadership and remove the historical landmarks that remind the people of what made their country great. As all can plainly see, as an example of this warfare strategy, that men who were more noble have been replaced by wicked men and women who obey unlawful, evil orders. Communists control and change the food supply to the people (natural food and spiritual food). They change the constitution, the rule of law of that nation they are infiltrating and taking over. In the same way, Satan seeks to replace those who faithfully feed the flock of God with hireling wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). The enemy seeks to rob, to steal, kill, and destroy that spiritual food which feeds the faith of the remnant elect of God. So he changes the Word of God, the Constitution of Christ’s kingdom. This is why he has changed the Bible, the words of God, and has removed the Holy Bible (KJB) from front and center of our gatherings.
“And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.” Jeremiah 23:36
“And they continued stedfastly in THE APOSTLES’ DOCTRINE (Word) and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Acts 2:42
When God’s people don’t “continue(d) stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” they will famish and perish.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16
Of this intriguing psalm, one writer notes:
“Psalm 74—If You Choose To Let It In, You Have To Let It Stay – The enemy cried ‘Victory’ in the midst of a place that evil should never have touched.”
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23
Do we have a pure or an adulterous heart? Is Jesus truly our “first love”? See Revelation 2:4-5.
You and I are in a battle for our eternal souls. Nothing could be more serious or consequential. Following Christ in the crucified life is essential to victory.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12
“Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” 2 Timothy 2:3-4
“Not Holding the HEAD” = Not upholding Christ.
“In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. 5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. 6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. 18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” Colossians 2:3-19
At the root of this Bible message exposing the works of Satan, is “the spirit of antichrist” which is come to subvert, to intercept the pure worship of Christ, the only “HEAD” of the body He purchased with His precious blood on that cross (John 19:30; 1 John 4:1-4). Anti in the biblical word “antichrist” means in place of. Now reflect upon how Satan comes into the midst of where God is supposed to be worshiped and puts something, anything in place of Christ. There my friend, is the work of “many antichrists” at work in the modern church world. And note that the Bible informs us that there are “many antichrists” (1 John 2:18).
The devil has stolen the holy fire and the Word of God. What has such produced?
CAN anyone show us a good church member who is actually devouring, memorizing, and meditating on God’s Word daily and evangelizing the lost? I doubt it.
What does this reveal?
Just what kind of fruit is this?
Bad fruit.
“Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” John 7:16, 20
Read Psalms 74 each morning this week. Your understanding will be greatly increased concerning the tactics of the enemy.
PRAYER: Father in Jesus’ name, please unite my heart to fear Thy name. Circumcize my wicked heart. Separate, remove all evil, every trace of it from this life You gave. I am not my own but Yours, bought with a price. I am Your vessel, a temple of Your Holy Spirit. Please purify my heart dear LORD. Like Your servant Isaiah, I am a man of unclean lips and life. Wash me afresh with Thy precious blood dear LORD Jesus. From this moment forward, I am all Yours. Please use me mightilly, bearing much fruit for Your eternal glory. In the name of Jesus, amen.
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